The Top Ten Tips for Women in Business Series: Tip Eight

This isn't a big point, but quite a powerful one. It is easy to make the assumption that all work cultures are similar to the one you work within. After all, your organization is your benchmark.

But this isn't necessarily the case. With over three decades of working with a huge variety of sectors and industries I know that organizational cultures can vary enormously.

The private sector is every different to the public sector for instance. In the UK, we also have the NHS (National Health Service), which while a public sector is very different to other public sector organizations with a culture all of its own. The education sector is, again, very different.

You may well have clients and customers that operate within very different cultures to your own. To have the same -- generic -- response for all is a mistake that may be detrimental in the long term.

If we go back to Tip Six, understanding how the brain works, the same is true with organizational culture. Different organizations really do speak different languages and have very different ways of reaching decisions.

It is key that as a powerful woman in business, you really get to know the culture of the organization you work within if you are employed. This is crucial to know how to position yourself internally in a way that is most beneficial for you and your career, and also, to know whether or not the culture is actually one you want to live within. After all, your working environment represents the biggest percentage of your waking time, so it is essential it is the right fit for you.

Then, it is important to learn the culture of any organization you may deal with in the course of your working day so that you are able to make those elegant communication shifts to talk their language and oil the cogs of rapport and relationship building.

These points are equally vital if you run your own business as you are likely to be dealing with a plethora of organizations and their incumbent cultures.